May 1 – Connemara and the Wild Atlantic Way

We have another tour today, back to the Connemara area.  It was still overcast for much of the day with short sunny moments and occasional rain.  But the scenery is still wonderful.

Early on we spotted a Connemara Pony near the road so we stopped and our guide, Gerry, had an apple for the pony.  Needless to say the pony was more than happy to come up to the fence and pose for photos.

We also stopped at one of the largest areas of peat remaining in Ireland.  Gerry discussed how the peat is formed (requires thousands of years), how it is cut and how they dry it out before it can be used.  There are still families in this area that harvest peat from family plots and use if for heating and cooking.  However, the use of peat is gradually going away.

The tour took us out on the Sky Road,

Salmon Farms

past the gates of an old castle (got a good view of the castle on the way back),

and almost to the end of the road.

We had lunch in a pub in the little town of Letterfrack while the rest of the group went on to Kylemore Abbey.  After lunch we walked up to the nearby Connemara National Park headquarter.  

They had some info about the peat bogs, including some large examples of peat wood (wood that had been preserved in the bogs).

Because we had only a small amount of time we took the shortest walk up into the hills where there were great views of the countryside...

and around the pony fields.  There had two day and seven day old foals…very cute.

On the road back to Galway we went past a Church of Ireland…

and some goats, which aren’t nearly as common in Ireland as the sheep.

We also made a couple of Quiet Man stops.  In the early 1950's the movie The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, was filmed in this area.  So we stopped at a replica of the cottage used in the film...

and a bridge that featured in a fight scene.